Stanley Clarke: A Bass Man and His Upright Desires

For those in the know, the name Stanley Clarke brings
many things to mind—beautiful Alembic basses … funky
slap solos … a big Afro ... and, most likely, Return to Forever.
Founded by legendary keyboardist Chick Corea in 1972,
Return to Forever—along with John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu
Orchestra and Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter’s Weather
Report—was hugely instrumental (no pun intended) in establishing
the jazz-fusion genre. Though RTF has included such
noted players as session drummer Steve Gadd and guitarists Al
Di Meola, Earl Klugh, Bill Connors, and Frank Gambale (who
currently plays with the band), Clarke is the only member other
than Corea who’s been there from the get-go. Through this and
other vehicles, Clarke became one of a handful of 1970s bassists
who brought electric bass to the forefront and gave it a solo
voice of its own.

In addition to RTF work, Clarke’s prodigious musical accomplishments
over the years include collaborations with the likes
of Jeff Beck, Ron Wood, Larry Carlton, Jean Luc Ponty, Stewart
Copeland, and fellow bass gods Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten.
He also has a formidable track record in film scoring with credits
including such feature films as Boyz N the Hood and Like Mike 2,
television series like Lincoln Heights and Soul Food, made-for-TV
movies such as Murder She Wrote and The Red Sneakers, and even
Michael Jackson’s video for “Remember the Time.”

Considering that Clarke’s stellar career as a bassist has centered
on the electric, the last thing you might associate with him is the
upright bass. But all of that changed when he and longtime RTF
drummer Lenny White reunited with Corea for this year’s Forever.
In fact, after 2010’s Stanley Clarke Band album won a Grammy
for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, Clarke—now 60 years old—
asserted that he might not be recording and performing on electric
bass again for quite a while.

“I told Lenny that the worst thing in the world is for a guy over
60 years old to be playing electric bass. I get this picture of an old,
fat guy holding an electric bass, and I said, ‘It won’t be me.’”

While the thought of Clarke behind an upright bass may be new
for those used to seeing him groove on an Alembic, it’s nothing new
for him. He began his musical career at the age of 19, backing jazz
greats Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, and
Stan Getz in New York jazz clubs. “I didn’t formally study the electric
bass like the kids do today,” Clarke says, “but the acoustic bass is
something I studied—I was planning on joining an orchestra.”

When you listen to Clarke’s recent acoustic bass excursions on
Forever, his years of developing a unique electric bass style clearly
come through. “I’ve always viewed them as two completely different
instruments, but the music I play on the electric bass and the
music I play on the acoustic bass have a kind of cross-pollination,”
he says. “Personally, I think [playing both] makes you a better
player on both instruments.”

Forever comes with two discs. The first is a best-of collection
that includes tunes from the 2009 RTF Unplugged tour, jazz standards
like “On Green Dolphin Street” and “Waltz for Debby,” RTF
classics such as “Señor Mouse” and “No Mystery,” and originals
by Clarke and Corea. The group’s founder plays acoustic piano on
all these songs, while Clarke is mostly on upright. The second disc
features studio tracks from rehearsals for a one-off Hollywood Bowl
concert that kicked off their world tour. It includes Corea, Clarke,
and White, as well as Jean Luc Ponty on violin, singer Chaka Khan,
and original RTF guitarist Bill Connors. On this disc, the acoustic
tunes are mixed with electric-driven tracks in the more traditional
RTF vein, with Corea getting behind his synths and Clarke bringing
out his trusty Alembics.

Rather than taking the trio back on the road, though, Clarke,
Corea, and White decided to support the US launch of Forever
with a new Return to Forever touring band that includes Ponty and
Australian sweep-picking master Gambale, who has recorded and
performed with Corea several times over the years.

We spoke with Clarke recently about the double album, his
collaboration with Miller and Wooten, his to-die-for gear, and his
philosophies on music as a vocation.

Although the first Forever disc
features acoustic-jazz instrumentation,
you can definitely
hear jazz-fusion thinking
within the straight-ahead stuff.

Yeah. It’s very difficult to have a
partition between genres. I think
that’s true in all music today.
You really have to put your
mind into it, like “Okay, it’s
straight-ahead and I’m going to
do it in the style from 1960 to
1965 Miles Davis.” It’s difficult.
I think those days are over. One
of the things I love about young
players right now is that it’s all
there. You even hear hip-hop
influences in their stuff. It’s cool.

Stanley Clarke plays his Lemur Music-made upright through a Ampeg SVT-2PRO head and an Ampeg
cab at
De Oosterpoort in Groningen, Netherlands, on November 13, 2009. Photo by Klaas Guchelaar

One of the guests on Forever
is Chaka Khan. A lot of
people think of her as a funk
singer because of her groundbreaking
work with Rufus in
the ’70s, but on this album
she sounds like a seasoned
jazz singer—she does some
sweet scat singing.

Chaka has always been a big,
big, big jazz fan. She’s a serious
musician, and whenever we call
her to sing, she loves to do it.
But you have to remember that
in the ’70s, she and Rufus had
hits and managers that were
kind of controlling. That’s all
they wanted you to see. The
perception of an artist from an
audience’s point of view is completely
different from what the
guys and girls are really like. I
know country artists that, if you
go to their house, they’ve got
Miles Davis and Coltrane on.

Bill Connors also makes a
return appearance.

At the end of the last RTF tour,
the band and Al Di Meola
decided to go separate ways. We
were wondering what we should
do for the guitar scene, and
Chick came up with the idea to
call Billy. I didn’t even know if
he was still playing. We called
him up and he says, “Yeah, I’m
still playing.” So he came in and
we messed around. He rehearsed
a bit with us and took some
music home. He came back
again and hung out. And so he
played with us at the Hollywood
Bowl. The thing I like about
Billy is that he’s always a warm
player—he’s a melodic player.
And he still has that.

You’ve been playing with Lenny
White since you were teenagers.
How would you describe the
way you interact musically?

We’re both predictable to each
other. That can be a good thing,
but it can also be a bad thing.
So we have to work on trying to
surprise each other and amp the
game up. We’ve been together
40 years now. You know, you
have this musical mind and two
or three people can be the owners
of that mind. And that’s a
great thing. But what makes it
even better is when you challenge
it—when you go against
that mind. Everyone will start
smiling, and it’ll throw everybody
back into playing games—
it’s great. My logic tells me
that maybe it would be boring
because we’re both predictable—
I know what he’s going to do
and he knows what I’m going
to do—but I’m pretty sure what
we’re doing sounds great.

Clarke thumbs a ride with a triple-pickup Alembic Signature Standard. Photo courtesy of Concord Music Group

Your 2008 album, Thunder,
with Marcus Miller and Victor
Wooten is quite a contrast to
what you’re doing now. What
was it like playing with those
remarkable bassists?

You know, I’ve been playing
with other bassists for a long,
long time—back to New York
in the early ’70s with bass
choirs. I think it’s very important
to play with other bass
players, because it forces you to
really bring your musicality up.
You can’t just go in and survive
with technique. When I played
with Victor and Marcus, we
were lucky in that we had a natural
orchestration. Marcus loves
to play low all the time. Victor
likes to play in the middle, high
… well, he’s kind of all over
the bass. I was playing tenor
bass and piccolo bass. I was the
guy laying out the harmony or
comping. If there was a melody,
I would either play it or support
the melody harmonically.

But it was a challenge trying
to come up with music
that works for three basses. I
don’t think many people know
this, but some promoters actually
didn’t want to have us play,
because they thought we would
blow up their PA or that it
wouldn’t sound musical—that
it would be just a bunch of
rumbles and that we were just
taking advantage of our names.
Obviously, that wasn’t the case.
It was a really fun experience
for me, because it forced me
and Marcus and Victor to really
play different. The only time
we played like ourselves was
when we played individual solos.
Marcus did that along with a
bass clarinet thing. I chose to
play an acoustic bass solo, which
was great, because I was in front
of a lot of kids who were there
because of Victor and had probably
never even seen an acoustic
bass. We plan to get back together
again maybe at the end of
next year. I told those guys that I
don’t know if I’ll even be playing
electric bass by then … we’ll see.

Let’s talk about gear. What
electric basses are you playing?

I still play an Alembic bass.
They just made a brand-new
one for me. It’s absolutely the
best Alembic bass I ever heard
in my life. I’ve been with those
guys a long time. I like playing
their basses. I would never
dare say that it’s the best bass
in the world—I don’t believe
in that kind of thinking—
but this bass is good for me
because I’m used to it. It’s got
a good sound.

Tell us about your electric-bass
amp rig.

I’ve been playing stereo bass
for a long time, so I have a
bi-amped system. My cabinet
configuration is either two 15s
on the bottom or 18s on the
bottom. And I have 10s, or
sometimes eight-inch speakers,
to deal with the treble.
Now this is something I got
from Chris Squire: I split off
the treble into another set of
speakers—usually small guitar
amps, just to give it a little
edge on the stage.

Because it’s a stereo rig, not
only do I have all the EQ possibilities
on the bass and the amp,
but I also have the ability to use
phasing between the low pickup
and the high pickup. Essentially,
it’s like I’m running two basses
at the same time. There are a lot
of possibilities. And I’m using a
TC Electronic G-System. I had
to find something really clean
because the Alembic bass isn’t
naturally warm.

Clarke tracking his 2009 Jazz in the Garden album with pianist Hiromi
Uehara and drummer Lenny White.
Photo courtesy of Concord Music Group

You used to play SWR amps, but
now you’re endorsing Ampeg.

I like SWR a lot, but when we
travel today we sometimes have
to rent a backline—especially
when I’m doing my own tour.
Return to Forever is different.
It’s a bigger scene, so we carry
our own equipment. When I go
into a city, for some reason the
Ampeg stuff is always newer. I
go into some towns in Europe,
and I just can’t find the other
stuff. So Ampeg is a better
scene for me.

You played the more rocking
“Señor Mouse” on electric.
Did you think about playing
it on upright?

I’ve surprised some people
with my upright playing in
rock formats. I finally found a
pickup that works for me, an
Underwood. I’ve tried them
all. And I got a bass with a
removable neck made for me by
Lemur Music. They measured
my boyhood bass—the bass
I’ve used on all the records I’ve
done—and made 14 of them. I
kept seven of them. As an acoustic
instrument, it sounds okay—
it has a nice, sweet sound—but
when I put the Underwood
pickup on it, it’s a monster. I
think the removable neck is the
way to go for traveling, too.

What do you use to amplify
your uprights?

Ampeg works better for acoustic
bass, too. I can compete with
the loudest players—I don’t
care how loud they are. And
this bass actually sounds pretty
good with the bow, too. I also
use a piece of equipment from
a company called EBS—the
MicroBass II. I think it’s the
best unit you can use for acoustic
bass. It has two separate
EQs, and they’re really designed
for bass. It’s a direct box, but it
also has EQ.

Let’s wrap things up by talking
about musical careers.
What would you like to tell
young bassists today?

Try to be as honest as you can.
The more honest you are, the
more you open yourself up for
possibilities and opportunities.
Sometimes you’re playing
some music and you’re, like,
stuck in one thing. If you look
around, you’ll find that probably
some of the things that are
reinforcing that stuck feeling
are other people telling you
what you should do—whether
it’s your wife, your brother, or
your bandmate. It’s not a bad
thing—it’s nice to be thought
of—but I think it helps to
really sit back and come up
with nine or 10 other things
that you’re not doing. If you
try those nine or 10 things,
you’ll be surprised at what you
can get into.

Clarke has multitudes of Alembics, but this Signature Standard is noteworthy
because of its BIgsby tremolo.
Photo courtesy of Concord Music Group

In my case, film scoring was
completely an accident. I was
on this jazz-special TV show,
and the director said, “Man,
I’ve got this show and I’ve got
a couple of episodes coming up
that I need some crazy music
for. Can you do it?” And I said,
“Yeah, sure.” But I didn’t know
if I could do it. I knew I could
compose, but….

Anyway, it turned out to be
Pee-wee’s Playhouse! And you
know what? I was nominated
for an Emmy Award—and it
was, like, by accident. I didn’t
even know what an Emmy was.
I’ve done 50 films, television
movies, and television series …
I don’t even know how many
of those I’ve done. But it happened
in a blink. If I had time,
I’d write a book about the
things that happen in your life
at a blink—and the flip side,
the things you decide not to do
at a blink. So, to summarize
what I just said for a young
guy, don’t pass up nothin’. If
you have the ability to try it
out, try it out.

Stanley Clarke’s Gear BoxCLICK HERE to watch Stanley show us his gear in a Rig Rundown...